Tuesday, January 31, 2012

BioWare released a new trailer for Mass Effect 3 this
morning highlighting the new and returning voice actors of the game. Jennifer
Hale returns as female Commander Shepard, Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, Keith
David as Admiral Anderson, Seth Green as Joker, Tricia Helfer as EDI, and
newcomer Freddie Prinze Jr. as James Vega.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Blizzard announced today that its annual convention for all
things Blizzard will not occur this year at the Anaheim Convention Center like
it normally does, nor anywhere else. In a post on their BlizzCon site, Blizzard
noted that due to its numerous current development, including Diablo III,
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and World of WarCraft: Mists of Panderia,
BlizzCon would be held off until next year in 2013.

BlizzCon has been an annual event since 2007, with each year
announcing a new product or feature. It could be with all of their current
projects, they have nothing new to announce. It could also be a financial
decision, with Blizzard stating several times that BlizzCon is a loss for them
in terms of profit, and held purely as a gesture of goodwill for the fans.

It’s interesting to note that 2012 was the year that
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime mentioned would be the first news of their
upcoming next-gen MMO project, Titan. With BlizzCon 2012 off the plate, it’s
doubtful that we’ll hear anything about this project until next year.

In the same post, Blizzard announced the 2012 Battle.net
World Championship, bringing in the world’s best StarCraft II and World of
WarCraft arena teams to compete in Asia at the end of this year.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Last week the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. This game wasn’t on my radar
until I sat down for a presentation of it at E3 2011. I have a feeling this is
the RPG many non-RPG fans have been waiting for.

Reckoning is the first game to be released from the
developer 38 Studios founded by pitcher Curt Schilling. However, Schilling
isn’t the only big name behind the game. Famed fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore
wrote a 10,000-year history for the game as well as the upcoming MMO project
codenamed Copernicus. Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, worked as art director
on the game, and the lead designer of The
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Ken Rolston, served as executive director for
Reckoning.

Looking at the game, it could be labeled it as a derivative
fantasy RPG. It’s based in a fantasy setting with elves, gnomes, magic, and
swords. But the feature that stands out above the rest is its combat. It’s been
described as someone putting the God of War combat system in an Elder Scrolls
game. After playing the demo, it plays more like Darksiders meets a hybrid of
Fable and the Elder Scrolls. Combat is fast, fluid, and dynamic. I can’t think
of another RPG that allows you to sneak attack an enemy, juggle him up in the
air, fire several arrows at him while still in the air, and slam him down to
the ground with a giant two-handed mace.

Reckoning also takes a cue from Skyrim, as there are no classes
in the game. Instead, it uses a destiny system that effectively lets you choose
your class at the end of the game, rather than the beginning. During the game,
you can freely switch weapons on the fly to create hybrid combos. Feel like
mixing the sneak attack of daggers with the burst damage of magic? The destiny
system allows you to shape your character to how you want to play, whether it’s
with a two-handed sword or with a bow. The fun part comes from experimenting
with these different combinations and unlocking different destinies to see
which playstyle fits you best.

I have to commend EA, 38 Studios, and Big Huge Games for
putting out an exceptional demo, especially on PC. It’s refreshing to play a
demo again; the last quality demo I can remember was the Bulletstorm demo
released in 2010. Even after finishing the tutorial, and outside areas of the
demo, you’re given an extra 45 minutes to explore and experiment, whether
that’s following up on the quests or stalking and killing NPCs in town.

The demo is free and available on both Origin and Steam for
PC, as well as the Xbox Marketplace and PlayStation Store. You’ll also unlock
items for Mass Effect 3 when you play the demo as part of a cross-promotion.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,
and PC on February 7.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

You may have wondered where I’ve been lately. Maybe you
haven’t. In either case, I can tell you it’s been enjoying the hell out of Star
Wars: The Old Republic (as evidenced by my Ratpr page). But before that, during
beta, it was a different story.

After receiving my beta key in late October and downloading
the client, I fired up the game to see how well it would work on my system. The
game promptly greeted me with a critical error. It confirmed my fears; the
computer I built in 2005 would not run this game I planned on playing for the
next several years.

Who am I?

Cameron Wright

I'm a freelance game critic. I write news articles, features, reviews, and critiques for PC and console games in addition to other topics across the industry. I was a senior editor for Darth Hater before I started freelancing. Since then, I've written for IGN, Complex, Gameranx, and PC Gamer.